Vegetable Seed Treatment Options

For a grower to succeed many challenges must be overcome. In pre-planting and pre-emergence stages, these challenges range from selecting the best genetics to establishing and maintaining healthy seedlings.

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Seed Treatment Introduction

For a grower to succeed many challenges must be overcome. In pre-planting and pre-emergence stages, these challenges range from selecting the best genetics to establishing and maintaining healthy seedlings. Germination, uniformity and vigor are essential for success in directly sown or transplanted systems which can be negatively impacted by various seedling pests. Fungi, bacteria, insects and other invertebrate pests can all reduce seedling health or in some cases kill seedlings outright. When making decisions to best mitigate the trials in protecting their crop, growers utilize their years of personal experience and leverage expert advice.

At Seminis, we value the grower’s experience in their field and believe that we can be a valuable partner to help them select the right seed treatments combined with best in class germplasm to create a system that works to reduce or eliminate the impact of these pests. With our dedication to putting the grower first, our Seed Technology team has worked closely with the leading suppliers of seed treatments to identify the best treatment combinations for each of the major vegetable segments in North America. We believe this portfolio of products will allow growers to get the best start for their crop.

Why Seed Treatments

The seed is at its highest potential in the bag, once it goes into the ground there are environmental conditions that cut into your yield potential and profitability. By adding seed treatments to your seeds, you are taking that extra step to increase yield potential and reduce the impact of environmental stressors.

What are neonicotinoid seed treatments?

Nitroguanidine neonicotinoid insecticides (NNIs or neonics) are a class of systemic insecticides that control a wide variety of different insect pests. Neonics are registered as seed treatments for application to seeds prior to planting or as foliar sprays to control insect pests in many vegetables crops. This class of insecticides was first commercialized in the 1990’s and causes less toxicity in birds and mammals compared to organophosphate and carbamate insecticides. U.S. EPA registered certain neonic seed treatments under the agency’s reduced risk program, acknowledging both the selective activity of neonics and the targeted nature of seed treatment applications. The neonic family includes the active ingredients clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Neonic seed treatments, which include products branded as Poncho®, Gaucho® and Cruiser®, have been registered in more than 120 countries.